Letters to the Editors
Clarity and Challenge for the Role of Women
To The Editors:
Forgive me for entering late into this discussion but since it appears ongoing,
here is my view.
In his Statement about Gender and the Clergy, (New Church Life, November/
December, 2014), Bishop Brian Keith says: “In this [discussion about gender
and the clergy] as in all things of the Church, we seek the Lord’s guidance in
His Word.”
In all my reading of the Writings, I have never found any guidance from
the Lord regarding the acceptability of women in the priesthood. It is simply
not there.
However, the Lord’s guidance for a male priesthood is there. It is to be
found in Swedenborg’s Index to the Arcana Coelestia and repeated in the Arcana
paragraph numbers cited there. The Index, under Priest, page 265, states:
“The priesthood succeeded in the family of Aaron to the sons, because they
represented the Lord as to the Divine Celestial, and the Celestial Kingdom is
the priests’ kingdom....The Priesthood of Aaron, of his sons, and of the Levites,
is a representative of the Lord’s work of salvation in successive order, as in the
three heavens....Priests represented the Lord as to Divine Good...”
The representations of the Lord have not changed and can never change,
and it is the sons, the males, who bore and will always bear these representations.
These representations of the Lord are there in the males as priests.
At least, these are my readings and my understandings of the Writings
concerning gender in the priesthood, both of females and of males.
However, there are many ways other than the priesthood in which the
Church can be served. I do think that the contribution that the women of
the Church could make in serving the Church is under-estimated and underutilized. May I suggest that at the next General Assembly, focus is given to
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